伪满洲国(迟子建)

This is a story about the lives of a cross-section of people in Manchukuo when it existed between 1932 and 1945. The author gave a very broad sweep of people from various social classes to give readers an idea of how people in the different strata of society lived their lives in a state that functioned more like a Japanese colony. All were affected in some ways, the poor more than the rich as the rich inevitably have better connections. But besides being more adversely affected, the poor were also affected much earlier than the rich. For the rich, as long as the Japanese were winning the war, life carried on more or less as it used to be. For the poor though, many were already forced enlisted into the many labour teams used by the Japanese to build the facilities and infrastructure that they needed. The labourers joined up either because they were deceived by the promises of food and lodging or because they had nowhere to hide from the militias going after them. Villagers who were not enlisted fared worst; what was left of their grains were forcibly taken and many were killed indiscriminately.

What makes the book truly a compelling read is how individuals were depicted in the book. Structured into 14 chapters (over the 14 years of Manchukuo's history), each carrying 6 sections, and each section focusing on one person or a group of people as they lived through the years, one can see how lives of different people changed along with the destiny of Manchukuo, or more accurately, Japan. The lives of some of the characters crossed path, while those of others did not, but everyone has a story and collectively,  their stories tell the story of Manchukuo.

With great nuance, the author explored the individuals and how they felt about life then. People like 王亭业 (pg 3) and 张容彩 (pg 26) harboured animosity towards the Japanese, but were careful about expressing their feelings publicly. Pragmatic ones among the populace would cooperate if not for actual rewards which can come in the form of extra food, (see pg 371), then just to stay out of trouble, happy to let others do the resisting (pg 35). But there were others who collaborated, yet where they could, they tried to help their own (pg 434). Of course there were also those who took up arms by joining the militia. Unfortunately in this book, their plight invariably involved a life of hardship, deprivation and in many cases, betrayal leading to torture and death.

Most intriguing to me has got to be the way the author depticted specific Japanese characters. Although there is a general negative portrayal of the faceless Japanese military man, when it came to individuals, the author was a lot more nuanced. There was one that did research on living and dead humans in the notorious Unit 731 (北也南次郎) and had no compunction about watching his subjects suffer the most inhuman treatment, all because of his passion for his research. But he too was to exhibit some feelings especially after establishing a curiosity about Patient 26 (王亭业). His friend 羽田, on the other hand, is perhaps more paradoxical. As a Japanese military personnel, he defied that general image of cruelty and arrogance to always save his feelings for that one special girl who gave him that lucky scarf. Throughout his time in Manchukuo, he did not participate in any of the excesses commonly associated with Japanese soldiers. It makes one wonder about the motives of the author in her inclusion of this character.

One particular character stood out ironically despite his relative immunity from the political and military upheavals. 胡二 started off as a bandit, but after an operation that went wrong largely because of him, he escaped into the mountains with his abducted wife. From then on, his life would have its ups and downs mainly due to his inability to control his libido. This is an interesting character that would be usually missed out in books depicting lives of people in those times for his life was unscathed despite the great political turmoils and human sufferings. For that I credit the author for being able to give the story of Manchukuo a wholesome treatment, almost missing out no one. But more, I credit the author for so skillfully placing this character in the reader's heart. One that would be easy to dislike, if not hate, yet through his love for his family, especially his son, his big-heartedness in his business dealings, and his generousity towards a Japanese fugitive at the end of the story, he redeems himself in the eyes of the reader making the reader feel for him, and if it carries some reluctance, there is a lot more forgiveness.

At the start of the story, an old man gave his two grandsons two halves of a mirror just before they left home to pursue their own careers. They were to reunite the two halves of the mirror as a commitment to their own reunion. Alas, the two halves of a mirror were united, only that they were in the hands of two other people. Like the story of China and Manchukuo, the three north-eastern provinces would eventually reunite with the rest of China, but it would be through a long and tortuous path. And despite all the sufferings and death in the book, one hopes for live to be better.

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A Comparison of Two Books: All Hell Let Loose (Sir Max Hastings) - The Second World War (Antony Beevor)

What does one do after years of research, having collected piles of documents from the archives, stacks of scholarly and journalistic articles, gigabytes of interview records on different aspects of the same war? A logical thing to do would be to put them all down in a book that gives the reader an overview of the whole war. This was precisely what two prominent and important British authors have done. Both Sir Max Hastings and Antony Beevor are well-known for their scholarly research and clear and engaging writing. Both published their books on the Second World War in close succession and are therefore bound to attract comparisons.

But in a genre that is already well-served over the past 70 years, what can these authors add notwithstanding their respective knowledge and appreciation of the war? Here they are both clear about what they would bring to the table. Sir Hastings tries to depict the experiences of the common people in the war, be they soldiers or civilians, while Beevor offers a higher level view of the war, in an effort to show how the world was involved and affected in this war, and why it was aptly called the Second World War.

Sir Hasting's books are always interesting to read. As a non-native English speaker, I always find much to learn from his books. Not just in terms of the contents, but also from his command of the English language which is economical and precise. He is always able to find the right words which would lead the reader into the world he is trying to describe, and to feel the emotions he is depicting (unfortunately for the French, in this book they came out the worse for it.)

The author is successful in bringing out the story of the common man, military, civilian or victims. From French soldiers feeling bored as they waited for any kind of action to take place (pg 27), to British soldiers feeling frustrated that nothing seem to go right (pg 55). From the elation of victory felt by the German soldier when they were seemingly invincible (pg 133) to the fear and resignation when they finally got pushed back to the ruins of Berlin (pg 601). From a Japanese soldier's idealism that they were the chosen ones to die for their Emperor (pg 643) to their indifference to cannibalism of their own in order to stay alive. From the American soldier's feeling of extreme loneliness stranded on some pacific island (pg 260) to the revenge that the Russian soldier is determined to exact in Germany (pg 617).

The civilians had their own experiences, be it the Polish exasperation at why they were rounded up (pg 21), or the British life of deprivation throughout the years as they stood alone. The Leningraders' disillusionment with their leaders while they starved in the middle of the 3-year long siege (pg 173), or the Berliners' enduring nightly bombardment wanting the war to just be over (pg 513).

Antony Beevor succeed equally admirably in his book in giving his readers an appreciation of the geopolitical situations on the different continents which eventually amalgamated into this one big war. However, Beevor would not leave it at this level, this is one big war but at the same time has parts that are related but not necessarily linked, and in some cases, what happened before the war can ultimately have a great impact on the outcome of the war once it is fought.

His introduction of the individual, a Korean by the name of Yang Kyoungjong, fighing in a Wehrmacht uniform, shows the link that spanned across different theatres in that war. Yet his reference to Nomonhan (pg 15) and on the same page, to Polish opportunism bring home the intricate connection of events related to the Second World War across time and space. Despite that, the outcome or the lives lost in one theatre seems almost inconsequential to those in another. The Americans fighting and dying in a brutal battle in the Pacific would find victory in Europe irrelevant (pg 618). The Chinese, dying by the millions, would eventually find their story fitting but tenuously in the grander World War Two narrative (pg 552).

Beevor's approach allowed him to make some generalisations and conclusions about countries and their people (pg 400). Sir Hastings did not aspire to that, he wanted to go down to the individual, many of whose lives appear cheap beyond description, to see how they lived, coped, and in many cases died because of decisions made by people whom they would not get to meet.

Perhaps one way to differentiate between the two books is to say that while Antony Beevor showed his readers that though related, the parts of the Second World War do not form a coherent story all the time, Sir Max Hastings, showed that as different as the ideologies, motivations and terrains in the different regimes and theatres, the individuals' experience is not that different. Everyone involved would suffer deprivation, fear, loneliness, pain, both physical and emotional, elation, and despair. Both books are good companions of each other, even where the same sources or quotations were used, the two authors used them to highlight different aspects of the war. For that, it is not enough for one to say that he or she has read one, and so need not read the other.

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Being Singaporean, I am always interested in the Asian side of the war. While not as well researched as the American-related theatres in the Pacific War, the fall of Singapore is nevertheless adequately covered by many writers and scholars. China, however, enjoys no such attention (but see Paine 2012 and Mitter 2013). The rather scanty coverage on China in these 2 books (although Beevor gave it a more in-depth treatment that Sir Hastings) does not occur to me as an omission. I interpret it as evidence of the awkward situation China was in at that time.

Although people were dying in huge numbers, some in the hands of the Japanese, others from the civil war, and many others from starvation, it would not be until the end of 1941 when China was treated as an ally simply because she was fighting the enemy of the Western democracies. Yet very shortly her role would again be relegated to one of secondary at best and irrelevant at worst. When the Chinese army lost most of its engagement with the Japanese, when the Red Army hardly featured in any meaningful way against the Japanese, when China's leader and the regime he ran was known widely to be corrupt, when the strategy of pitting overwhelming numbers against the Japanese like the Russians did against the Germans did not produce comparable results, when the American Navy alone was able to strangle Japan, this outcome is to be expected.

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